Seated on a leather chair in a wood-paneled room, the North Carolina native started with a message about where we may be headed.

"The hardest thing about this for me as a dad, as a husband as a business leader," he says, "Is the unknown. I believe we fear the unknown."

Church introduced his song by listing reasons for hope, and there are many. His new song "Never Broke Heart" preaches a message of perseverance against all obstacles. It hit home.

"Go on and get born heart / And let your mama keep you warm heart," he sings to start the first chorus. Each chorus is different, but all three end with, "It's OK to cry / But don't never break heart."

Count new Eric Church music as one of the many reasons to have hope.

This marks the second time in six weeks Church has shared new music publicly. During CRS in February he performed a new song called "Jenny" during a keynote interview and shared that he wrote 28 a songs in 28 days for his next album while holed up at a shuttered restaurant in the North Carolina mountains in January. The process nearly killed him, he jokes, but it was necessary.

"Everybody needed to be uncomfortable," he said. The producer, the band — they didn’t know where they were being shipped off to. The writers — I brought in co-writers that had no clue what they were in for.”

There is no timetable for Church's next studio album, his seventh and first since Desperate Man in 2018.

Officially, the 2020 ACM Awards have been rescheduled for Sept. 16 at 8PM ET (to air on CBS), but no city or venue has been named. Voting for the awards has ended, but the results will remain confidential until the new date. Keith Urban will remain the host of the 2020 ACMs. He was first revealed as this year's host in late February, just as the nominees were announced. Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood are up for Entertainer of the Year this year.

Remember: The best way to watch the ACM Awards is on TV, with ToC on your phone.